Saturday, June 6, 2009

Hello! I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who follow me here on Blogger! I have moved over to wordpress to offer you an even better experience, with the same recipes and info you enjoy, plus much more! I will no longer be posting on Blogger and this site will be shut down soon but the website is still rawfoodpunk.com! No big changes to deal with! Please come see the new rawfoodpunk.com and if you enjoyed following subscribe to get updates to sent to your email! The RSS Feed was just set up so you should have no problem staying up to date with Raw Food PunK! Thanks again for all of your support! Let me know what you think of the new site as it comes along (its still a work in progress, but we're getting there!)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Hey Punks! I just wanted to take a second to let you know why posts haven't been coming as much as I would like the past few days. I am currently working on setting this site up to be bigger and better! I am moving over to a new host so that I can have two running blogs on the site and add pages. This will be awesome for everyone because it will allow me to provide more information in addition to the recipes without flooding one blog with everything. I am not a web designer, so this is taking me a bit of time and effort, but don't despair! I will have things up and running within the next 2 days and I have 2 recipes that I am very excited to share when this happens! I am also cleansing right now; just fruit smoothies or juice during the day and salad for dinner! I'll keep you posted on how it goes for me.

For those of you who follow me on Blogger, thank you so so much for your support and I will work on maintaining that feature, but I am not quite sure how it will go. If that's not available I will do an RSS feeder so you can subscribe!

As of right now, when you type rawfoodpunk.com into the address bar you will get a boring homepage with a message similar to this one. If you type in rawfoodpunk.blogspot.com you will be able to see all of my previous posts. Please check back later today or tomorrow, I will be plugging away when I get out of work (I'm on break right now!) and hopefully have the site at a magnificent starting point by tomorrow morning!

Thanks so much for your patience; I am hoping to make rawfoodpunk.com a one stop place for nutrition information, raw food guides, advice, news, and discussions and of course easy, no fuss raw recipes!

Friday, May 29, 2009

As much as all of us would like to hope we live in a health food paradise, we simply don't. Yes, there are some places that are starting to get smart about serving healthy food, but the truth is most convenient places to eat are full of processed, pre-packaged crap.

As a raw food punk, I want to be able to eat raw while still maintaining my place in the standard American culture, fast food joints and all. Eating raw in a McDonald's laden world can be tough, but, I have found, that with a little bit of knowledge and some savvy choices, we can all eat healthy, even raw, at just about any American restaurant. The first of my raw fast food adventures was at Moe's, and I think it was pretty darn successful. You can apply these tips to any burrito chain such as Chipotle, Qdoba, and others.

How to Eat Raw at Moe's

1. Start with a salad. The Personal Trainer is the vegetarian salad at Moe's, so that would be the best choice. You'll be making quite a few adjustments though, so it doesn't really matter which one you choose.

2. Say no to the rice, beans, and meat. This is probably easy for most raw foodies. If its a challenge for you, however, I guarantee you will get plenty of flavor from the other toppings. What do you think has more flavor, white rice or fresh salsa?

3. Have fun with toppings: cucumbers, olives, pico de gallo, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, guacamole, cabbage....There are a ton of raw options that can be put on top of your salad to make it incredibly full of flavor. If you are not 100% raw you can throw the fajita peppers, onions, and mushrooms on the salad too, yum-yum!

4. Skip the dressing. I guarantee the guacamole and the pico de gallo will fully suffice for dressing your salad, you don't need those processed commercial dressings.

5. Skip the cheese and sour cream. Again, things like guacamole, pico de gallo, and salsa will give you much more flavor and nutritional benefit than processed dairy. Even if you indulge on some tortilla chips (which I don't recommend, but I've eaten a few too!), you should opt for salsa instead of cheese sauce. Better flavor, better nutrients, better health!

Focus on the whole, raw foods that can add color and flavor to your salad, skip the processed stuff and you'll be good to go! Fast food gone raw!!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Many people believe that hummus is a super healthy choice. Although hummus is way better than, say, a cheeseburger, it isn't exactly a super food, either. Beans, such as the garbanzo beans in conventional hummus are legumes, which means they are a combination of protein and starch. Just as in proper meal combining, it isn't quite ideal to be mixing protein in starch in one dish. Beans should be avoided to keep digestion efficient, especially if you are a woman trying to lose weight. Beans aren't terrible, but they aren't the best either.

That being said, however, I miss dipping raw veggies in hummus, so when I saw a recipe for hummus made from zucchini instead of garbanzo beans I had to give it a shot. I actually tried this one on my own without a reference recipe. I remembered seeing that one of the recipes had cumin in it, but since I was out I tried a little bit of curry powder. The curry powder gives this hummus an interesting flavor that is subtle but gives it just the right amount of punch. I also like a lot of garlic in my hummus so there's a bit of a kick from that too. This is really good stuff and its quite easy to make.

Zucchini Hummus

2 medium zucchini, peeled and roughly chopped

¼ cup raw tahini

2 cloves garlic

¼ cup lemon juice, (1 lemon)

¼ teaspoon himalayan sea salt

1/8 teaspoon curry powder

Throw everything together in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve with raw veggies or as a spread on raw crackers or bread. Stores very well in the fridge.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Thanks to Memorial Day, there were plenty of events to "cook" for this weekend! My mother was looking for a recipe to make for one of her parties, and I, like the brat I am, intervened and made her choose something healthy. What she picked wasn't quite ideal, but we switched it up a little to make a more suitable side dish. Mom made Sesame Noodles from a Betty Crocker cookbook with whole grain pasta, agave nectar instead of sugar and extra veggies. Her version turned out decent, but I personally felt that the flavor of the wheat pasta took away from the subtle sesame taste that was trying to shine through. Suddenly, I was inspired! I decided to one up her and make a raw version for a party we were both attending the following day.

My recipe was totally better! I used zucchini instead of pasta and it allowed the sauce's intricate flavors to really be the star of the dish. I brought this to a party where pulled pork sandwiches were the main event. Needless to say, I certainly was not amidst avid raw foodies. I am proud to say, however, that everyone loved these raw sesame noodles; even my 12 year old cousin and his 21 year old ramen noodle loving brother, YAY!

This recipe does use toasted sesame oil and rice vinegar, so it is not technically 100% raw, but I think the abundance of raw veggies certainly makes up for it. Enjoy!

Raw Sesame Noodles

4 Zucchini

1 carrot

1/2 red bell pepper

3 scallions, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

3 tablespoons Nama Shoyu

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

4 1/2 teaspoons agave nectar

1 1/2 teaspoons grated ginger

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

1. Cut the zucchini in half and run each half through a mandolin with a blade with "teeth" on it, to create noodles like angel hair pasta.

2. Run the carrot and red pepper through the mandolin also. Mix together the 3 different varieties of noodles and scallions in a large bowl.

3. In a small bowl, combine the last 8 ingredients and mix well.

4. Toss the noodles in the sauce. This can be served immediately, but its even better when it has chilled for a while.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Happy Sunday Punks! Hope you're having a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend; summer is here!! Today I am sharing a recipe with you that I came up with while trying to make raw chocolate Halvah. Which, to be quite honest, is something I didn't even know existed until I recently found a recipe for a raw version.

I've been wanting to do more with tahini, sesame seed paste, since I learned that sesame seeds are a source of complete protein. Take that meat-eaters!! So this tasty little treat is a great source of protein and it gives you a good amount of calcium too!

In my efforts to make the raw chocolate halvah, I realized I was super low on cocoa powder, ouch! Fortunately, however, I've decided bumps in the road like that are perfect opportunities to get creative so I started experimenting with some other ingredients until I had something worth eating! I started adding vanilla, then threw in some coconut oil, plus the little bit of cocoa powder that I did have. The nutty sesame flavor mixed with the chocolate, coconut, and vanilla give these little "truffles" a malted chocolate flavor that really surprised (and delighted) me. Definitely a successful endeavor, enjoy!

Tahini Truffles

½ cup tahini

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ teaspoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process in a food processor.Roll into small, truffle sized balls.Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. You can eat them without chilling, but they are best once they are a little more solid and cool.

Friday, May 22, 2009

I have been doing quite a lot of messing around in the kitchen this week. I have been making an effort to make creations with what I've got in the fridge already instead of running out to the grocery store every couple days to stock up for a recipe I found. It has been a lot of fun, and I highly recommend everyone try working with what they've got sometimes to exercise your creativity!

My mother, who impresses me everyday with how much she has learned about eating healthy, used to always get this vanilla raisin walnut cream cheese that was, I admit, incredibly tasty. I had a bunch of almonds on hand, and after making raw cream cheese out of cashews, I decided to make my own version of the not-so-healthy one we used to enjoy. I ended up with a very nice finished product! The flavor is just about the same, subtle vanilla flavor and just enough sweetness, plus using the almonds definitely added a nice flavor. The only major difference is the consistency, this is a fluffier version, almost more like ricotta cheese than cream cheese, but its nice and light. I'm not sure what to put this spread on yet, so I've just been taking a spoonful right out of the container here and there, yum! Give this one a try, and let me know if you think of any brilliant ways to use it!

Vanilla Almond Cream Cheese

1 cup raw almonds

¾ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons agave nectar

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend everything together until smooth and creamy in a food processor.Then mix in ¼ cup raisins for an extra treat, yum!

Just as a last note, I wanted to let you know that I ate a peanut butter cup ice cream concoction last night. I know, I know, bad news for my body, and I was not feeling very fresh this morning BUT I am currently sipping some green lemonade and I am pretty sure I can actually feel it cleaning the processed dairy/sugar junk out of my cells. Thanks green juice!!!